I was thinking about this theatre the other day. The Brooklyn Academy of Music revived NIGHT OF THE COMET, which I caught on original release at this theatre back in 1984 when I was back in Warwick for a family visit.

ed renden i hear is at the showcase seekonk on fall river avenue- he used to work at the small theatre across the street 9-10 before they closed it- he worked with a another manager who was a very good friend of mine who i have lost touched with- wonder where he is now any one know?

I have to correct a previous posting – Ed Renden was NOT the manager of Warwick Mall Cinemas, Bill Quarters was. Ed was the manager of Garden City Cinema, then Swansea Mall, and finally Lincoln Mall (all part of the General Cinema chain). After all of those cinemas closed, he went to Showcase Cinemas in Seekonk in the mid-90s.

The Warwick Mall Cinemas closed on January 28, 1999 after the last showings of A Bug’s Life and Mighty Joe Young. It had opened in April of 1971 twenty-eight years earlier. A Providence Journal article from the previous day reported the closing. The Theatre had opened as a two-screener. Later one of the auditoriums was split in two. The seating capacities were 450, 360, and 330.

In the 1970s and 1980s, I saw most movies at either the Warwick Mall Cinemas or the Showcase. The downtown movie palaces had closed, and, when the neighborhood theaters were sliced into mini theaters, I stopped going to them. I did make an exception, though, with the Cinerama which sometimes showed a foreign film that I wanted to see.

The only think I didn’t like about this theatre was that the auditoriums (when they were a twin theatre) had screens that had sort of funnel-like metallic sides. I believe they were grayish. When the left-as-you-enter auditorium was twinned, I believe each then had fixed black masking. There were no curtains and no variable masking in the house. CinemaScope films filled the screen, but in standard aspect-ratio movies, there was a blank area of white screen on either side. As a purist, I’ve always felt that correct screen masking is essential to full enjoyment of what you were watching and part and parcel of a good projection system as much as good focus, brightness, and sound quality.

Yeah, I remember seeing Jaws here when it came out. I was in high school and for about two years I had the willies when I swam in fresh water!

I remember when the “lost” Hitchcock films (there were five of them) were screened after a long hiatus I saw some of them here back in the 1980s. “Rear Window” I believe was one of the films.

I don’t remember the details, but for some reason — rights disputes I would assume — five or so of Hitchcock’s films didn’t screen for years and years and finally they cleared up the disputes and screened the films in first-run houses like the Warwick Mall.